Teapots: the short and stout physicians’ friends

The teapot and the BMJ: two quintessentially British objects (well perhaps not the teapot, given its Chinese origins, but definitely adopted by the British). Both have helped the nation’s doctors in providing the best possible care for their patients over the past 260 years. The BMJ has provided up to date research, case reports, and articles to its readers, but what about the teapot’s contribution?

Some people may think that the teapot serves only one (fairly obvious) purpose, while others view it as completely superfluous. I would like to offer my findings from the BMJ archive, with a view to making teapot sceptics consider whether it really is just “a little teapot.”

The teapot first features in the BMJ as a medicinal aid in 1844, when it was used in the management of hydrophobia (late stage rabies).1 At a meeting of the Sheffield Medical Society, the case was presented of an 18 year old apprentice tiler who was able to drink fluids only through the spout of a teapot with the lid on. An unlidded teapot (or any other vessel) increased the patient’s panic, inducing endless paroxysms of coughing and spluttering and leaving him unable to swallow.